- Yes
- No
The icons for air-to-air missiles in the current game are very chaotic. There are four types of icons for short-range IR missiles about white, red, yellow, and green.
The icons for SARH missiles use white seeker and white or red wings.
While the icons for long-range IR missiles have the same wings as SARH missiles, except that the seekers are painted black.
Most missiles follow this pattern, but the using of these icons on different aircraft is very chaotic and casualness. If icons are used to distinguish different type of missiles or the difference of guidance methods, the same R-13M1 has a yellow icon on the MiG-23M and a white icon on the MiG-23MLD; On the MiG-21SPS-K, the R-13M1 and R-3R, as two missiles with completely different guidance methods, use the same yellow icon. There are also AIM-54 of F-14 and R-24T of MiG-23, the “Fireflash” of Swift F.7 and AA-20 of Super Mystere B2; If the color of icon is to indicate that a certain some type of missile is “better”, For Israel’s F-15A, the green AIM-9M is a more powerful missile than the yellow Python 3, but on Japan’s F-15J, the yellow AAM-3 is more effective than the green AIM-9M.
This chaotic using of icons is confusing. The difference in missile icons on some aircraft is completely unnecessary, such as Magic 1 and AIM-9P on A-5C, Magic 1 with yellow icon has better maneuverability, but the AIM-9P with red icon has a longer range, so the Magic 1 is not absolutely “better” than the AIM-9P.
Therefore, I suggest using the same colored icons on the same “generation” missile based on the classified of “generations” according to the historical technological advances about the seeker technology and digital signal processing, such as for short-range infrared missiles:
White icon: 1st generation
Earliest IR missile, rear aspect engagement, poor maneuverability, narrow field of view of seeker (AIM-9B, R-3S, PL-2, Shafrir)
Red icon: 2nd generation
rear aspect engagement, improved maneuverability, improved field of view of seeker (AIM-9J/P/D/G/H, R-13M1, R-60, Fireflash, SRAAM, Shafrir 2, PL-5B, Magic 1, etc.)
Green icon: 3rd generation
Improved “all aspect” seeker without IRCCM (AIM-9L, R-60M, Python 3, PL-8, PL-5C)
Yellow icon: 4th generation
Multi-element & multi-channel seeker with better IRCCM capabilities, aerodynamic/ TVC complex control with excellent maneuverability (AIM-9M, AAM-3, R-73)
(Because the yellow icon has a unique black seeker, I believe it represents the unique IRCCM capability of the 4th generation IR missile, so I placed it at last)
I’m not sure how to distinguish the icons of radar missiles and long-range IR missiles is better at the moment, but I believe that ARH missiles (AIM-54 and future AIM-120, R-77…) and SARH missiles (AIM-7, R-27s…), as well as single pulse and continuous wave signal guidance (Super 530F and Super 530D), should be classified with different icons to facilitate people’s intuitive understanding of the characteristics of missiles.
